The magic of the second.., p.8
The Magic of the Second Backyard, page 8
“I know how to play Super Smash Bros.”
Cassidy crossed her fingers and waited for Oscar to respond. Silence on the other side of the door. She could hear him breathing, though. He hadn’t gone back to the couch with his headphones… yet.
“I promise I won’t cry if you beat me. If you can beat me,” Cassidy wagered. Maybe that would entice him to let her in? A long sigh came from behind the door.
“Hold on,” Oscar said. It sounded to Cassidy like he was relenting. She heard rustling and hoped he was putting on a shirt with his pants.
Finally, the lock clicked, and the door opened. Oscar stood blocking the doorway wearing black gym pants and a dark red shirt. His hair was still messy, and he still smelled, but Cassidy kept her mouth shut. He was letting her in!
“What character do you play?” he asked. It was a test. Did she know how to play? She did.
“Pikachu!” she said.
The rest of the day and into the afternoon, the two of them sat on the couch together and played. They played melee battle after melee battle, player one and player two. She didn’t play as religiously as Oscar but proved herself enough in a couple hours.
“Jump to the top platform!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“Get Mario. You’ve got him!”
They shouted at the screen, and the characters barked orders and grunts.
Yoshi punched and dashed. Yoshi made gibberish sounds of zeept-zoompt.
Pikachu threw lightning. Pikachu exclaimed pika-pika.
Inkling threw ink paint. Inkling gurgled woomy woomy woomy.
Princess Peach squealed and yelped.
Yes, Oscar played Princess Peach.
“Because she’s the best!” he huffed. “She has the best defense and can float instead of fall.”
Cassidy didn’t say anything but echoed every time Peach sang “la la-la la-lah-la” in a neener-neener jeer. It was too funny not to! Cassidy wanted to ask if she could play the pretty-in-pink character, but Oscar knew all the secret combos. She wished to be pretty, in the game and in real life. Back at home, Cassidy didn’t have a boyfriend yet. She talked about crushes with her girlfriends, but Cassidy thought she was too tall and lanky to attract any boys from school. She didn’t think she should ask her brother about girlfriends or boyfriends or his opinion on how pretty she was.
It was well past lunchtime when Cassidy’s tummy growled. She hadn’t stood up for hours except for a few high fives across the couch.
“I’m hungry,” she announced.
“Do you want a snack?” Oscar asked.
“What time is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Cassidy looked around for a clock and saw his tablet on the coffee table. She tapped for the time and saw it was 3:00 pm. She leaped up from the couch, tossing the controller aside.
“It’s so late! I’ve got to get going,” Cassidy exclaimed.
“Going?” He looked at her incredulously. “Where? There’s nothing going on.”
Should she tell Oscar about the hidden greenhouse? Would he tell on her? She decided to take a chance. They were becoming friends, weren’t they?
“Do you want to know a secret?” Cassidy said cautiously. Oscar rolled his eyes.
“Whatever,” he said.
“No, seriously! There’s a secret… building. I found a secret building!”
“Is it Dracula’s castle?” Oscar said sarcastically. He didn’t believe her. Or maybe he didn’t care.
“Castle or not, I’ve got to go and clean it up.”
“Clean it? What for?”
“Clean it for spring! It’s a rundown old greenhouse, and it’s overgrown and needs help getting ready. Do you want to help?”
“Do I want to help clean? No, I don’t.” Oscar turned back to the TV and the video game.
Cassidy shrugged.
“Fine. Suit yourself!”
Cassidy left Oscar alone in his room with Princess Peach. She had better plans than playing video games all day, every day. She was going to build a garden.
Winning Windows and Losing Answers
Cassidy forgot to share with Oscar the fact that the greenhouse was locked. I wonder if he knows about a key! Cassidy thought about returning to his room to ask but decided against it. He wouldn’t understand. Oscar didn’t grow up with their mom as she did. Not everyone liked to do the dirty work of gardening. But everyone enjoyed the results! She would win him over with a beautiful garden, too, just like her dad. Cassidy packed her supplies into her backpack and rushed out the door. When the greenhouse is sparkling and ready, then I’ll ask him to come and see it.
As she headed towards the greenhouse, a granola bar in her hand, Cassidy started to imagine what her garden would look like. Flowers would be everywhere, and crawling vines would wind up the posts with grapes or squash. Cherry tomatoes would burst with color in giant pots in the corners. Peas and corn would be new to her, but the greenhouse could fit larger plants, even pumpkins! Enough to share with all the fairies and birds. She could toss seeds and fruit pieces to them out the greenhouse door into the meadow. Maybe she should get a birdbath. She wanted to encourage the robin to visit as often as possible. She owed the early bird for helping her find the greenhouse.
On her way to the second backyard, Cassidy passed by the hole in the fence. She didn’t have plans to go to Wonderland. She peeked anyway but didn’t see the portal. The wind wasn’t blowing, and the wind chime wasn’t playing. Today, it was just a hole in the fence. Cassidy deliberately huffed, turned her head, and strode past.
As Cassidy forged along the path, she yearned for spring. The forest was still sleeping from winter, the colors of nature muted. The bare ground was matted a chocolate brown. The pine trees were cold and evergreen; their trunks like crusty, old bread. The sky was pale blue. Even the clouds were too cold to puff up and streaked across the sky in fuzzy whisps. Cassidy couldn’t help but wink one eye closed more than once, wishing the brilliant colors of red, yellow, and green would reveal themselves. But there wasn’t magic without Wonderland. She would have to wait for her Colorado world to warm up.
When Cassidy reached the clearing, the greenhouse stood proud like a mama robin in a nest. The pulled weeds from yesterday encircled it, strewn around in messy piles. With the tall sides of the greenhouse exposed, Cassidy was ready to complete her next task.
Cassidy spent two hours cleaning the windows of the greenhouse. Years of dust were caked on, and she scrubbed with both hands at the dirt. Her cuffs were soggy and rolled up to her elbows, but she was warm from her work. She finished the front and moved to the left side.
Cassidy could hear a few birds in the trees edging the clearing on the left side of the building. They sang bright notes watching her work. Cassidy tried to remember the song the fairy sang while cleaning. She didn’t recall the words, so she made up her own.
Make it pink
Pink like pinky swears, fairies, and iced tea
Turn this house pink
Pink is how I think
I spin around and I jump through a portal
Turn a robin pink
Pink is how I think
I mash x and y and I close one eye
Turn a Princess pink
Pink is how I think
How funny Princess Peach wore pink but was named after a peach! Cassidy took off her vest and kept working. She went back over the cleaned sections with Windex to make them sparkle. She thought about what Oscar had said about the greenhouse being like Dracula’s castle. She liked the thought of visiting a real castle. The gloomy stone walls and dark stairways in the video game weren’t what Cassidy would have wanted, though. She wanted a castle filled with bright colors, sweet smells, and lots of friends. She wondered if it was the same type of castle the queen of Wonderland had.
“I bet it has lots of windows and sunshine,” Cassidy imagined. “A queen probably doesn’t live in a pinecone fort.” Her good idea from yesterday no longer sounded convincing now that she was looking at a gem transforming before her. The greenhouse was beginning to look like a castle. A castle made of glass. Yes, she thought. This is my castle.
When her spray bottle of water ran empty, she stopped to rest. She stepped back to admire her work. The sun was at her back, and the silver trim of the roof reflected rainbows into the air. It reminded Cassidy of the fireworks in Wonderland, secret colors escaping from the light like a prism. Making something else pretty made her feel pretty. Which was comical, considering she was a mess. Her hair was like a robin’s nest, with stray hairs everywhere. Her arms were streaked with muddy lines like a mallard duck swimming across a pond. Her knees were sponged with dirt like a rabbit’s foot. But she felt the closest to being an actual princess at that moment, looking at her sparkling castle that was hers and hers alone.
If I’m going to be the princess of this castle, I need to find the key! “I will have to come back again tomorrow,” she said, determined to continue her work towards royalty.
She packed up her things, putting the matted paper towels in a trash bag before putting them in her backpack. She stuffed in the dirty towels and then the empty squirt bottle. She would need to bring more water next time to refill it. Really, she needed to find a closer water source. If she were going to plant anything, she would need lots of water. She wondered if there was a stream around here. She was about to zip up her backpack when she noticed the back pouch looked empty. Was she missing something?
Suddenly, it dawned on her. She had lost her tablet! She was so focused on her new project that she had forgotten about it. She had left her tablet outside all night and didn’t know if her mom had called to say goodnight. When did she last have it? She thought back to meeting the fairy and the chickadees in the pine tree. She had fallen out of Wonderland without it in her hands. She had used both hands to climb the tree. The last time she used it was when it was the Book of Answers. Maybe the fairy is watching over it for me, she hoped.
It was getting late, but she couldn’t give her dad another reason to be angry. And Mom is probably wondering what’s going on. Her heart quickened. Cassidy slung on her backpack and traced her way back to the gate. She climbed back over it and followed the barbed wire fence. Thankfully, the red scarf made it easy to find the portal. The wall of pinecones was still there too, but she didn’t see her tablet! Careful not to disturb her workmanship, she looked around the matted grass where she remembered sitting. She brushed aside leaves. She circled tree trunks. She parted bush branches. She even looked high into the tree, looking for the owl or the robin to give her a hint. She tried grabbing dirt and flinging it into the air like snow to see if any magical colored dust gave her hints.
Maybe it’s lost in Wonderland, she nervously thought. She slipped off the backpack straps and tossed the pack through the opening. She half expected it to disappear, but it thudded on the hard ground.
Cassidy crouched, parted a few pinecones, and made a bridge out of little sticks. Then she stepped closer to the fence and carefully reached for the backpack to pull it back and set it next to her. I guess I’ll have to go retrieve my tablet myself! Cassidy wet her dry lips and puffed at the barbed wire, looking at the fence again.
Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do.
She stepped into the Winter Wonderland again. Looking around, Cassidy didn’t see her backpack and was glad it was safe outside this place unless it sprouted legs and followed her. She didn’t want to lose anything else.
“Hello?” Cassidy called for the friends she had met before. Cassidy closed one eye, the colors of spring appearing like a painting. “Hello? Robin? Owl? Are you there?” She didn’t see either of them.
I should have brought a worm, she thought to herself. I bet the early bird would show me the way if I had a worm.
But Cassidy didn’t have a worm. And she didn’t have the Book of Answers to ask which direction to go. Where should she look for her Book of Answers?
Captain Magpie
If she couldn’t find a friend in Wonderland to help, maybe she could make one! Cassidy scooped the snow around her into a ball and started rolling it. She rolled it around, and it grew bigger, packing more and more snow against it as it rolled. When it got so big that she couldn’t lift it anymore, Cassidy stopped to catch her breath.
“Now for the middle,” she said to the winks of fireworks between the trees. She bent down, gathering some snow into her hands. When done, Cassidy stacked it on top of the first snowball and then made a third for the head.
“Now it needs a face,” Cassidy smiled. She snapped off a couple branches and stuck them in the sides for arms. Cassidy found a couple rocks for eyes. Then she used more rocks to make a mouth by placing them in a curve. Cassidy dug in her pockets for something to use for a nose. Just her luck, she found a stick of lip balm. It was something her lips needed in Colorado because it was so dry. Cassidy stuck the colorful blue and white tube into the snowman’s face.
Cassidy liked the happy snowman, but something was missing. “It needs a finishing touch,” she said. “Like a scarf or a hat.” The red scarf! Of course. The snowman could stand guard at the entrance with the scarf. Cassidy went and untied it.
“Squaw-hak!”
Suddenly, Cassidy heard a yell from a big black and white bird. The bird was wearing a pirate hat and landed in front of the snowman, coming nose-to-nose with it. He peered at the expressionless face with rocks for eyes. Then the bird opened his wings wide and snatched the lip balm case from the snowman’s face!
“Hey!” shouted Cassidy, running over. “What are you doing?”
The bird ignored her and walked in a large circle around the snowman and Cassidy, strutting around in a wobbly weaving pattern. He wasn’t watching where he was going because he had both eyes locked on the lip balm case. He held it up to the light, mesmerized by it. “It’s so unique! So reflective! So shiny!”
“That’s not yours,” Cassidy told the bird.
“But it’s pretty!” the magpie whined. “I like it.”
“But the snowman needs a nose!”
“It does make a good nose, but it makes a better feather.” Like a feather in his cap, the bird stuffed the lip balm onto a piece of chewing gum. The bird’s wide-brimmed pirate hat was covered with trifles and bobbles. Cassidy could see a penny, a button, pieces of a metal soda can, bits of blue twine, and an end of a zipper. Each item was shiny, and the sunlight sparkled against them.
“But what about my snowman?” Cassidy argued. “You can’t leave the snowman without a nose.”
“Fine,” agreed the bird. “How about we find something else for the snowman.”
“And how do we do that, Mr. Magpie?”
The magpie licked his wing and squinted at it in the air. He stuck his tongue to one side and concentrated.
“We should go that way,” he said finally. Then he stuck his feathered finger into the snow and began drawing. He started with an arrow in the direction he pointed. Cassidy watched from where she stood as he walked around in a wide arch, dragging his feather tip behind him. “And that’s Captain Magpie, thank you very much.” Then he drew a straight line behind her before drawing another arch that returned to the top, connecting them all together. It was like the outline of a sailboat. Cassidy couldn’t see how a ship could float in the winter snow though.
“Keep an eye out, shipmate,” Captain Magpie said. “Ahoy!”
The magpie waited for Cassidy to do something, but she wasn’t sure what. Was she supposed to row the boat?
“Didn’t you bring your telescope?” he asked.
“I don’t have a telescope,” Cassidy said.
“Of course you do! Everyone can dream. The only other thing you need to do is set your sights on it. Here, I’ll show you.” The magpie folded his feathers into a circle and held them to his eye. “Like this!”
Cassidy thought the magpie was imagining things, but she obeyed, shaped her hand like a tube, closed one eye, and squinted through it.
Cassidy gasped. She watched as the ship took form before her eye. Hidden in the promising spring, a ship lifted out of the ground with Cassidy and Captain Magpie standing on the deck. Cassidy stood near the bow as the ship kept rising, carrying them into the air. Cassidy surveyed the land with one eye in her new telescope as the ground faded into a sea of green grasses. Hummingbirds zinged and darted like dolphins ahead of the bow. The wind blew the flying ship higher and higher, and then Cassidy heard the wind chimes toll their minor scale.
Do-re-me-fa-sol-le-te-do.
“What are we looking for?” Cassidy asked, one eye open and one eye closed.
“Anything that catches your eye!”
Cassidy had one thing in mind that she was looking for: the Book of Answers. But the brown leather journal wouldn’t be attractive to Captain Magpie. Cassidy decided she could help the magpie and look for her book at the same time.
Cassidy thought she saw the robin fly by once, but it didn’t stop to say hello. She also didn’t see any castle towers. The Book of Answers and the owl had said the castle was down, but everything was underneath her from up here.
Cassidy adjusted her gaze to look around the flying ship.
“There!” Cassidy saw a metallic orb disappear behind a round cloud. What was that floating so high above the ground?
“Excellent!”
The magpie steered the ship straight into the cloud, splitting it with the ship’s bow. The white fluff felt like a million kisses on Cassidy’s face as they passed through it, and the cloud swirled behind them into a laugh.
“A mylar balloon!” The shiny foil was painted with butterflies and some cursive text. It crumpled without helium, and the outside wind fluttered it upon itself.
“Grab it! Wrangle it in!” Captain Magpie gleefully yelled, both wings gripping the ship’s wheel and guiding the ship closer. Cassidy’s heart thumped like when she was at the top of the giant pine tree above the fairy’s house. She didn’t want a repeat of her last visit to Wonderland. Clamped one hand like an eyepatch over one eye, she stretched over the railing towards the balloon. Almost… Her fingertip tapped and shimmered the balloon, pushing it just out of reach.
